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VICTORIA — Smiles mixed with relief Wednesday as the building trades and BC Hydro headed off an ugly showdown over work rules for the hydroelectric project at Site C on the Peace River.

The deal, which secured a place for unionized labour in building the estimated $9-billion project over the next eight years, was a tribute to the stick-to-it-iveness of the construction unions and their executive director, Tom Sigurdson.

He and his associates spent the better part of a year pursuing a fair shake from Hydro officials, meeting multiple barriers and getting nowhere.

Nor did Sigurdson’s buttonholing of Energy Minister Bill Bennett, government MLAs, and senior staffers to the premier succeed in persuading the Liberals that the unions, far from being an obstacle, could help provide a trained B.C.-based workforce for the most expensive infrastructure project in provincial history.

Not until the construction unions launched a court challenge, claiming Hydro’s proposed work roles violated the constitutional rights to free collective bargaining, did the Liberals sit up and take notice.

She told Hydro to withdraw the more obnoxious restrictions — “they agree with me on that” — and to then seek common ground with the unions on Site C.

That was March 3. But things didn’t really start moving until about a month ago, when Jim Sinclair, the former head of the B.C. Federation of Labour, became involved as an independent mediator.

The result was the compromise framework announced Wednesday. “It allows the project to operate as a managed open site that includes participation from union and non-union workers as well as independent and First Nations contractors,” said the joint press release. “The two parties have also agreed to no strike, no lockout provisions.”

For Hydro, the main compromise was agreement “to place greater weight on bids with a mix of labour representation that includes the building trades” — meaning the unions got the foot in the door they’d been seeking all along.

In return, the trades “waived the practice of signing project labour agreements which restrict other non-affiliated organizations from working on the site.” They further agreed not to raid members from unaffiliated unions (the Christian Labour Association will be a presence on the project) nor to try to organize non-union workers on the main component of Site C.

Sigurdson, while accentuating the positive aspects of the deal, didn’t downplay the challenge for the building trades in securing a place with would-be bidders on the various components of the Site C project.

“It is a work in progress,” he told me, then added, for the benefit of his members: “Be patient. There is still much work to be done.”

Hydro CEO Jessica McDonald praised the deal as “a modern model of a labour agreement” that will “ensure labour stability for Site C.” She also credited Sinclair for his assistance in facilitating the result. “A highly creative individual,” she told me. “I want to thank him.”

Perhaps the biggest gain for organized labour was the show of respect, not just from Hydro but from Premier Christy Clark herself. “I am not ideological about this,” she told reporters. ”We do want to get this built on time and on budget ... and we can’t get this done without union workers.”

In return, Sigurdson proclaimed the building trades’ unabashed support for the controversial hydroelectric project. “We’ve been behind Site C all along,” he said. “We think it is a project that is worthwhile.”

The Liberals were not long in turning labour’s support for the project into grist for the political mill.

“The people of B.C. deserve to know where we, as members of this house, stand on this important project,” Energy Minister Bennett advised the legislature in early afternoon. “That’s why today I will be tabling a motion in support of the construction of the Site C project. I hope that all members will join me in saying yes to this motion and to the construction of this unique and historic project that will secure a century of affordable, reliable and clean power.”

Responding for the New Democrats — and playing into the government’s hands — was former leader Adrian Dix, whose flip-flop on the Kinder Morgan pipeline in the 2013 election campaign cost NDP support in resource communities, drawing criticism from Sigurdson and others.

Not content with reiterating the NDP view that Site C should be subjected to a thorough review by the independent B.C. Utilities Commission, Dix launched into an over-the-top and mostly shouted critique that offered only grudging praise to the unions for “doing the best to represent their workers under the circumstances.”

The capstone was a reference to Liberal policy that “repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce.” Yes, a quote from Karl Marx and no, you can’t make this stuff up.

Still the politicking may be moot, should any of the multiple legal challenges to Site C result in a court-ordered injunction to halt the project.

For their part, the Liberals and Hydro insist it is full speed ahead on construction, starting this summer.

“That is our plan,” McDonald said Wednesday. “The timeline stands,” said the premier.

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Vaughn Palmer: Site C pragmatism and a Karl Marx quote on the floor of the B.C. legislature

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